Rochester board wrestles to save teachers' jobs

Wednesday

Feb 13, 2013 at 3:15 AMFeb 13, 2013 at 5:46 AM

By Samantha Allensallen@fosters.com

ROCHESTER — Tuesday night, at a special budget meeting for the both the Rochester School Board Instruction and Special Services committees, board members said they had to find room in the budget to save teachers' jobs.

Since the start of the budget process this year, the school department has revealed several staff members, from administrators down to teachers and paraprofessionals, must be laid off to meet the tax cap by saving $1.6 million.

Chairman of Special Services Committee Julie Brown said there was no room left in their “bare bones” budget, with some reductions listed under athletics and other categories already. Of that budget though, there was a large increase in fiscal year 2013's projected expenses for special education students, due to the district taking on a large number of special needs students.

The budget was set at $889,880, compared to last year's figure of $738,337.

Special Education Coordinator Christiane Allison pointed out a student was just taken on who must travel to Massachusetts for special classes, she said, at a cost of about $15,000 per month to the district for transportation costs alone.

Board member Daniel Harkinson made a motion that was unanimously accepted from the Instruction Committee to shave $75,000 off the budget, where school administrators at each level will make the decisions on how to modify their departments to fit the budget.

“I don't think it's our job to micromanage,” board member Anthony Pastelis added, who originally proposed a similar motion to Harkinson's.

Harkinson emphasized no cuts are easy, and the Rochester school district does not waste much money on new books and equipment, but he said it would be necessary to scale back the budget to save valued staff positions.

“I'm mindful of the fact we're frugal. We don't spend a lot but I think we need to find as much money as we can to put back in some of the teaching positions that are on the block,” he said.